mikeszekely

Near as I can tell someone actually designed it and is selling the files so you can 3D print one.

New product pics. Prime Smokescreen (who we already saw) Liege Maximo. I kinda prefer the robo-Loki in The Covenant of Primus, but it's G2 accurate. And finally, Nexus Prime, and though I suspect a lot of you will just see this and shrug, I can feel the rage from the other board that shan't be named and I haven't even swung by there yet.

This kit's a bit late coming, because it was sitting and waiting for Deletus to come it at TCP before I shipped. But this is DNA's DK-61 kit for Legacy Vector Prime. When I reviewed Vector I said at the time that retooling Jhiaxus didn't really do enough to properly do justice to the character, and that was when he just had to represent himself as a character from Transformers Cybertron. But with Age of the Primes giving us figures for the rest of the Thirteen, all of which have been brand new molds, it's really looking like Hasbro did Vector dirty. But is it something we can't remedy with an upgrade? We see here that DNA included new shoulder pads, new forearm armor, new shin armor, new armor for the sides of his legs, new shoes, new wings, a new sword, a sword holder, and a little gold bit. Also included with my copy was a second sword in blue plastic and a extra sword holder, though they were wrapped in a bag and tossed casually into the box rather than having a spot in the tray. To begin, we take the shoulder pads and kind of slide them over his existing ones. Note that there are pegs on one corner, those pegs should be on the back of the shoulder pad. In all honesty, they way they slide on doesn't feel great, and I've heard others complaining of breakages. Fortunately the forearm armor works a lot better. It simply uses a 5mm peg to plug into the ports on his arms. It's not perfect, since the forearm armor is kind of stuck on his arm instead of wrapping over it, but it helps. For the legs, first we're going to take these skinny pieces, and see this hinge they built onto them? They clip into the vestigial ones on Vector's leg, where Jhiaxus' little winglets went. Just plug them in and then fold them over onto the little hook tab The shin armor has little hooks that grab the bottom of the shin and the molding near the 5mm ports on the sides of his legs. The connection is very tenuous, though. If you're cool with making this mod permanent, DNA does suggest using a little glue to attach the shin armor. To attach the shoes, first you have to remove the toe guns, then the pegs on the shoes plug into the 5mm ports on Vector's feet. Plugging the toe guns back on helps secure the shoes in place. Again, not perfect, since his hips and thighs are straight ported from Jhiaxus and still missing some of Vector's details, but it does cover the wires on the stock Jhiaxus legs and gives him his gun toes. The biggest upgrade here might be the wings, which are hinged and have some paint on them in addition to being significantly larger. To attach them, first we have to pull the stock wings off the split mushroom pegs, then it's just a matter of pushing the new ones on. The new wings do a much better job of giving Vector that caped look, though they do make the figure a little more back heavy, and one of mine doesn't like to stay on. Lastly, we've got his new sword. I have mixed feelings about it. One the one hand, it's big and painted and pretty dang cool. On the other hand, not every sword needs to be some anime zweihander, and the stock sword has tabs for the Cyber Planet Key that the new ones do not. For that matter, the stock sword has a 5mm peg that plugged into the port already on Vector's back. For the new swords, you need to use this C-shaped bit. The flat tab goes into this slot above the 5mm port on Vector's back, then the sword can slide into it. The fit is, even when the sword is all the way in, kinda loose, and the fact that it connects with a tab instead of a peg means you can't angle it like the stock sword to be drawn over a particular shoulder. I think there's no real question that the new parts do bring a bit more cartoon accuracy to Vector, but how do the new parts affect his transformation? Well, that's where this kit kind of starts to break down for me... before transforming him, we have to remove the sword and holder, the shoulder pads, and the shoes. Once they're off, you transform Vector almost as you normally would, but instead of folding the wings down to the hook tabs that are now covered by the extra armor we put on the sides of his legs, we fold them down to plug into the tabs on said armor. The foot armor pegs into the leg armor with the toes pointed forward and the soles facing out. You'll notice a slot under the toes. The sword holders can plug into those slots, and the swords can slide loosely into them for alt mode storage. Meanwhile, there are these 5mm ports on the struts holding the wings. This is where the stock sword stored in alt mode. What DNA wants you to do here is take the pegs on the corners of the shoulder armor that I mentioned and plug them into these ports. You may recall we had a small gold bit that we haven't talked about yet. This fits into the T-shaped gap on the back of Vector's torso, which is the nose of the spacecraft. Near as I can tell, the two small rectangular slots on either side are all that was needed to secure the torso for robot mode, so no complaints here. And there's the vehicle mode... once again, the wings are proving to be the big improvement. The new shins don't interfere with anything, so they're fine, and the little gold filler works for me. I'm not super fond of the feet on the sides... having the toe guns pointed forward is kind of cool, but the fact that they have to partsformed, and the toes removed every time they go on and off his feet, is a pain. I think it would have been much smarter for DNA to design feet with the toe goes that simply replaced the stock feet entirely with ones that could transform like the stock feet. Partsforming the shoulder armor is similarly a pain; I get that Vector had big shoulder pads in Cybertron, but if they'd made them just a little smaller and angled them just right they still could have folded down with the stock shoulders and not needed to partsform. Ironically, the one part I would like to partsform is the forearm armor. They stick out from the already-chunky bottom of the spaceship, so it can't sit flat on the ground anymore. Too bad all the available ports are taken up by partsforming feet and shoulder pads. And here's the rub... while all of this does technically make the robot mode more cartoon accurate, that cartoon is Transformers Cybertron. Which does not necessarily have to apply to half G1-ified Covenant of Primus designs used for the other Thirteen. And here's the Covenant design. Now, if we're lucky, Vector's Age of the Primes release later this year will be a brand new mold, but I wouldn't hold my breath... I'm expecting the Legacy toy again, though possibly repainted in gold with red wings. So for now, I think I do recommend the DK-61 kit for Vector Prime- it's worth it for the wings- but as with a lot of DNA's recent kits I don't think I'll be using all of it. I'm probably going to ditch the shoulder pads, and replace the stock feet and DNA's shoes with Chinese 3D-printed feet that, as I suggested, transform the way the stock feet do. That'll still give me the improved wings, legs, and forearm armor, and I can partsform the forearm armor onto the spots where DNA wants you to plug in the shoes.

So I know I'm excited to get Dream Star's Scavenger and finish their Devastator, but G1 always does better than stylized, I think. And while a lot of us picked up ToyWorld's Constructor back in the day, I also think most of us also realize that ToyWorld's not quite pulling off the modern MP aesthetic. With that in mind I'd looked at X-Transbots' Ground Bite last April, and Fans Toys' Gehry immediately after. But I also mentioned that MMC was coming out with there own, and I'd get their Scrapper before deciding which set I'd ultimately pursue. Well, MMC finally released Deltus, their version of Scrapper, so the ultimate Scrapper fight begins NOW! *Note that for all pics it's Fans Toys' Gehry on the left, MMC's Deletus in the middle, and XTB's Ground Bite on the right. It's funny that when MMC created their Ocular Max brand the idea was that they would do more Studio OX-style stuff, but every OX release gets more and more Sunbow. Deletus here might be their most Sunbow figure to date... sure, the visible hinges and flaps on his shins make him look a little more detailed than Fans Toys', but with the green lumps for shoulder wheels and the thin-legged, top-heavy proportions he's definitely more cartoon accurate than XTB's. But is that necessarily a good thing? If I'm being totally honest, from a purely "how does this look" point-of-view, I still kind of prefer XTB's. It's like Deletus looks too much like the cartoon, Ground Bite looks like the robot the cartoon was based on, and Gehry looks like the the cartoon Scrapper ate the other five Constructicons. Depending on what you're personally going for on a shelf, I guess it's worth pointing out that Deletus is significantly lighter than the other two, and most of the gray and all of the green and purple you see on him is unpainted plastic. On the other hand, I'd argue that Deletus cleans up the best with the tidiest backpack. Perhaps accessories make a big difference? Again, not really. Deletus comes with a gun and a trumpet... same as the competition. As far as the guns go, they're pretty similar. Sure, XTB put a little silver paint on their barrel, and Fans Toys' used a gunmetal paint for the entire gun, but they're all recognizably the gun Scrapper has in the cartoon. Things get a little more interesting with the trumpets. Deletus has the most movie-accurate shape, and a nice painted finish. The other two use a vac-metal coating to make them look more like actual brass instruments, with Fans Toys having the best finish, I think, and XTB's looking the most like an actual trumpet. Aside from guns and trumpets, the other two mostly have partsforming bits, while Deletus comes with a tool intended to help with his transformation. Ground Bite does come with a sword, so I guess XTB has the best accessories? Really, I don't think it matters which Scrapper you prefer, you're going to get the accessories you actually care about no matter what. So we come to articulation. Deletus' head is on a hinge that lets him look up about 75 degrees. He can't really look down, but wait! That hinge is actually a double hinge! It breaks the sculpt a little but you can use the hinges to crane his entire head forward so he can look about 60 degrees downward past his own chest. No sideways tilt, though. His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his double-jointed elbows can combine for nearly 180 degrees of bend. His wrists swivel. His thumb has a ball joint at the base with a hinged pin. His index finger has two pinned knuckles. His other three fingers are a single piece molded into a permanent curl pinned at the base. He's got a ratcheted waist swivel, and about 60 degrees of ab crunch. His hip skirts get out of the way to allow 90 degrees of hip movement backward or laterally, and slightly over that forward, all on ratchets. His thighs swivel, and his double-jointed, double-ratcheted knees bend until the bumps on his calves touch his thighs. His toes have a little up/down tilt, and his ankles can pivot nearly 90 degrees. If you go back and check my earlier reviews for Groundbite and Gehry, you'll recall that Groundbite is pretty similar but with even more hand articulation and butterfly joints, but I found Gehry's articulation to be a bit sub-par. MMC eschews the more standard thin tab on the side of the gun handle plugging into a slot on the palm for a larger tab on the back of the handle that plugs into palm under the thumb. It's pleasantly secure on my copy. Trumpet works pretty much the same way, with his fingers curling through the loop. Like Ground Bite, Deletus has the gimmick where you can open a little panel on his wrist to see a communicator/computer. MMC even painted Detetus', which XTB did not. Up to this point you might be getting the sense that I think Deletus and Ground Bite are similarly good figures (but I'm not so hot on Gehry), with Ground Bite having a slight edge for what I consider to be better proportions, a better finish, more and slightly better accessories, and slightly more articulation. And that'd be fair. But then I have to transform them all, and suddenly things start to look different. Gehry is far from the worst Fans Toys transformation I've had to deal with, but it's still nothing I'd consider fun. Ground Bite's transformation is a bit more intuitive and a bit less of a pain, but there's still some sliders and thin flaps and some looseness in the middle until things are finally locked in place. And even then the rear wheels and roof don't stay in place super well. But Deletus is what you've come to expect from MMC... it's mostly intuitive and sometimes downright clever. You might need to check out the instructions the first time or two, but for the most part everything moves the way you think it should with minimal extra flaps or bits, and everything locks together solidly. If you're the type that likes to transform their toys, Deletus is by far the most pleasant experience. The only pain point for me was the tires. MMC engineered a kind of cool gimmick where the tires actually expand for alt mode, but despite claims of "I can do it with my fingernails!" from some circles and a tool included just for that bit I found them to be a bit tight. The plastic on the tool bent and let go before the wheels came out, and I cracked two nails before I dug out a metal spudger and pried the tires open. And what does that transformation get you? Well, forget Gehry again, as I think his alt mode is the worst of the three and clearly the mode that got the lowest priority from Fans Toys. Now, there are elements of Ground Bite that I think convey a bit more realism, like the seat an the working pistons in the shovel arms. I think Deletus' exposed knee ratchets do not make as convincing of a grill. But he's still got a steering wheel, tailights, and smokestack. His roof is a bit more cartoon-accurate, and the sides feel just a tad more cohesive. I guess it's good that Deletus has the best transformation, because I think he just might have the best alt mode. Of course, that alt mode rolls on those expanding tires, and his shovel has some articulation. There's storage under the vehicle for his gun. Normally you could stop here and declare a winner, but as part of a combining team I don't think it's fair to choose a definitive Scrapper without considering the leg mode. And we see that Deletus is noticeably smaller than the other two in this mode- for some collectors who don't really care about the robot or alt mode, they just want to build Devastator, simply being the smallest is the dealbreaker. But it's worth pointing out that Deletus is the smallest because there are no additional parts; if it's not on the robot or the alt mode, it's not part of the leg. Gehry has a huge chunk of diecast that snaps into the heel and wraps to fill a gap in the front, while Ground Bite's knee and thigh are a partsforming piece. Sunbow accuracy might also be a consideration here. Ground Bite would almost make a good toy-style Devastator leg, with all four wheel still visible and his arms sticking straight up to form the heel. On the other hand, I think we see where Fans Toys' priority was, as Gehry went from an ok-but-fat robot to a messy alt mode to a leg that somehow captures the goofy Sunbow model that bore little resemblance to an upright loader. The partsforming heel is the only one that has the two angled sticks from the cartoon. Deletus lands in the middle. His shovel shrinks to get the squarish look of the Sunbow foot and he hides all his wheels, but his heel is more toy-style. Looks are one thing, but how it moves will have an impact on the gestalt. All three have ankle pivots, and again Deletus is in the middle with less than Gehry but more than Ground Bite. However, Deletus is the only one with upward foot tilt. It's not a ratcheted joint, though, so it remains to be seen if that's some exciting extra articulation or a weak point that could cause trouble once there's more weight on it. What's not trouble, though, is the knee. Gehry and Ground Bite can both bend 90 degrees, which is technically enough, but Deletus' knee is double jointed and bends nearly 180 degrees. If MMC can maintain that level of articulation through the other figures in this set then their Devastator could very well be the one with the most articulation... maybe not just among Devastators, but of any combiner I've looked at. And yes, Deletus' gun can be plugged in for leg mode, and it doesn't affect the leg's articulation. So... do we have a definitive Scrapper? Honestly, for as hard of a time as I've given Gerhy, I really think we're spoiled as fans that we have three figures of this caliber to argue about. The truth is, I think it really does depend on what you're looking for. Fans Toys is clearly going to deliver a bigger cartoon-accurate Devastator with a premium finish... if you only care about combined mode and you're the type to put a figure on a shelf and not touch it again until it's time to dust then you're not wrong for going with Fans Toys. Likewise, if you're looking for a set of individual Constructicons I'd say Ground Bite is the best-looking Scrapper. But for me, I'll be forging ahead with MMC. I think Deletus offers the best balance across all three modes. I think Deletus offers the best transformation and the most straight up playability. I have confidence in MMC's QC and engineering, and they're the ones I trust the most to continue to make solid, playable robots with clever and interesting transformations into solid, playable vehicles that combine into a solid, playable gestalt.

Only kind of? If it were an actual thing and not something you have to 3D print yourself I'd have paid for one before I posted this.

I remember seeing Highlander 3 in the theater and really liking it. But it's got an abysmal Rotten Tomatoes score, so maybe 15yo me was just happy it wasn't as bad as Highlander 2. As for the live action show, I remember it starting off pretty good but after the second season each season got progressively worse. Then the other two movies were sequels to the shows, not the first three movies. The first, Endgame, was not great, it sort of played out like a long episode of the show who's entire point was to get rid of Connor and replace him with Duncan, the show's main character. The second, The Source, was Highlander 2 levels of bad. Despite starting Duncan again, the creators of the show refuse to acknowledge the film as part of the show's canon.

I know I got distracted at the end of 2025 with Magic Square's Bruticus, but let's remember we're in the middle of round two (or is it three?) of the Devastator Wars. So I went ahead and picked up Concrete Warrior, Dream Star Toys' version of Mixmaster. Five bots in and I think we've got a handle on DST's aesthetic... curves and lots of angular planes that give off an almost organic shape. I've complained with other guys in this set that the aesthetic combined with the lack of obvious G1 features has given them kind of generic vibes, like at a glance you don't know which guy you're actually looking at. But on closer inspection, with wheels on his shoulders, a head that's definitely got that Mixmaster forehead, and even the two rounded bits on the middle of his torso that there's definitely elements of G1 Mixmaster here. I think the most obvious thing he's missing is the thing with the nozzles above his head, but if you look behind his head you can see a pair of gold circles that actually do recall those nozzles. Really, I think the biggest change from how we normally think of Mixmaster is that DST kind of turned him upside down. There's no big mixing drum hanging out on his back. Instead, the drum is split and becomes the backs of his legs. That, in turn, means that his legs are the back of the truck, and if you look you can see that he's sporting a little backpack that's made from the cab instead of the mixing drum. On the one hand, I think that takes one of Mixmaster's more defining elements and kind of minimizes it, but on the other hand I can't help but admire how tidily it all cleans up. After the last couple of releases coming with cool melee weapons with translucent red blades and build-a-figure Megatron parts that turn into Devastator's combiner kibble, I'm a tad underwhelmed. Concrete mixer just comes with this gun, and a stick. The stick can telescope into a longer stick... I expect that these accessories will all ultimately combine into larger weapons for Devastator. Concrete Warrior's head is on a ball joint with pretty good up/down/sideways tilt. Shoulders rotate on ratchets, and can move laterally a little over 90 degrees. His elbows are double-jointed, but you'll get maybe 115 degrees before his forearms bang into his shoulders. Wrists swivel, the thumb is connected via a ball joint with two pinned knuckles. His fingers are pinned at the base, with two more pinned knuckles; the index finger is separate from the other three, which are molded together. His waist has a ratcheted swivel, and a small ab crunch (too much will cause his tummy armor to pop off). He's even got a little sideways waist bend. His ball-jointed hip skirts move enough to let his hips go just under 90 degrees forward, maybe 45 degrees backward, and over 90 degrees laterally, all ratcheted. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. No upward foot tilt, but they can tilt down, and his ankles pivot a little under 45 degrees. There's a slot in the gun's handle that fits onto a tab in either palm. The connection is kind of so-so. The instructions tell you to plug the stick onto the side of Concrete Mixer's forearm, like an arm-mounted baton, but I found the best thing to do is to simply jam it into his gun's barrel, turning it from more of a pistol into a rifle. Concrete Mixer's transformation is probably easier to figure out and remember than some of his fellows. His forearms curl up, attach to his shoulders, and scrunch in, then his backpack unfolds, expands, and connects with his arms to form the cab. The rear is a little more involved, as the sides and backs of his legs open and unfurl to get all the wheels in place. What you're supposed to do exactly with his feet isn't super obvious, though... frankly, I'm still not sure they're 100% correct. The real frustration is just the fit... there's a lot of squeezing stuff to make sure it's tabbed in, and you have to bend some parts around others to get them to hook in where they're supposed to go. As usual, DST's instructions are a bit trash, often unclear and missing steps. The resulting truck is, like the robot, pretty in keeping with the others aesthetically. Translucent windows, realistic details like skid plates, caution marks, and ladders, has the correct general shape, but is also sort of sci-fi and definitely not a real-world vehicle. The back of the truck doesn't look totally finished to me, the cab has some unsightly hinges, and the grill could probably have used some more paint. It's not the worst mixing truck I've seen, though. I certainly don't hate it. He rolls ok... on the tires, I mean. The mixing drum doesn't move. There are a pair of peg holes on the tops of the fuel tanks between the wheels on either side. The rearward holes are slightly smaller, and just the right fit for the small pegs on the end of the stick. The larger hole is big enough to shove the entire handle of Concrete Warrior's gun into it. And that, friends, is his alt mode accessory storage. I want to stress that Concrete Warrior isn't bad by any means, but compared to the other DST Constructicons he does seem a little underwhelming. There's some frustrations with his transformation, even if it's easier to figure out what you're supposed to do, and he comes with less accessories than anyone but Scrapper. I also am not a fan of the fact that the wheels on his shoulders have little bits of kibble that help lock them into the back, but they don't lock into place in robot mode. Still, this has been a pretty good set so far, so being the weakest of five pretty dang good figures isn't the worst thing ever. If you've been in on this set, there's nothing so egregious that you should quit. I think it ultimately comes down to the same thing as the other four... do you like DST's aesthetic? Then get Concrete Warrior to go with the others. Not a fan of the stylized take? Skip Concrete Warrior like you probably skipped the first four. I, for one, do not regret getting Concrete Warrior (or his buddies) and I'm looking forward to DST's Scavenger, hopefully in the spring. (BTW, you might recall that when I reviewed some of the other DST guys I used more comparisons than just Mecha Invasion's... I started messing with GT's Mixmaster, but quickly became frustrated at how kibbly he was and how poorly some elements of his design worked. MI's, though, was an absolute treat to play with again, and even though this review is for DST's Concrete Warrior, I can't help but gush again about how very solid, playable, and affordable Mecha Invasion's guys are and remind you again that you should probably check those guys out.)

They already got me buying Prime again with the Skybound version, and I'm told we can expect this battle-damaged retool to be repainted later in gray "sleep" mode. It's one thing for me to buy up a bunch of repainted Deluxes, but even I can justify buying every variant deco @ $60 a pop. (Please ignore the five versions of SS86 Grimlock...)

Man, I hate this three waves a year crap. I went from needing a spreadsheet to keep track of all my preorders down to just a few Pulse exclusives. Used to be preorders for the next wave would start popping up around the time the current one hit shelves. Well, if you're wondering when we might be hearing some news, I'm told that there will be big Studio Series and Age of the Primes reveals at the New York Toy Fair, and preorders will happen on February 17th.

That FR-13S one looks like a transforming happy meal toy I had as a kid. Fry Force or something.

Just like with the previous Timelines set, in a move that I assume is to keep forcing people to buy both sets, Optimus is once again paired with Starscream instead of the more obvious Megatron. One would think that doing a Transformers set themed around late Feudal/early Edo Japan all you really need to do is give all your robots a look that suggests samurai armor and call it a day. But, it's not like samurai wore their armor constantly. And, obviously, not everyone was a samurai. Some of the important and influential figures during that time period were merchants, ninja, warrior monks, pirates, and peasant-soldiers called ashigaru. Starscream here is probably still a samurai, but rather than armor he's sculpted to look like formal wear called kashimono. Kashimono consists of three parts. On the top is the dougi, which is like a short kimono. We can see elements of the dougi in the overlapping bands on Starscream's chest, creating the illusion of the sides of the dougi folded across his torso, as well as the biceps that look a bit like loose fabric. Worn over the dougi is the kataginu, a type of vest with broad, stiff shoulders that often bore family or clan crests. This gives Starscream his triangular shoulders and the sides of his torso, with round elements inside his chest intakes standing in for clan crests. Lastly, there's pants called hakama. This one's a bit subtle. Hakama are usually loose, however, they could be bound at the lower legs for riding a horse. So I think that's the idea here, with puffier thighs but skinny calves. Likewise, the loose sleeves of the dougi appear to be bound up under gauntlets called kote. The look is finished off with silver paint on Starscream's feet suggesting he's wearing traditional zori sandals. In terms of size and paint, Starscream compares a bit more favorably to his Hearts of Steel counterpart. I think my biggest gripe though is that all the paint and color seem confined to the front of him. The red on his wings is only visible from the front; from the back he's a sheet of gray plastic with bits of blue limbs. Starscream comes with three accessories instead of the usual two. First, we have a pair of guns designed to look like hinawajū, a Japanese flintlock rifle. He also comes with a fan. Starscream's head is on a ball joint, with basically no sideways tilt but pretty good up/down tilt. His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees, and like Prime his wrists are on ball joints so they both swivel and bend inward. You have to lift a flap on his butt, but he does have a waist swivel. His hips can move about 90 degrees forward, laterally, and just a little short of that backward. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend about 160 degrees. He's got an additional near the bottom of his hinge that you can use to fake a more extreme upward foot tilt, otherwise his ankles are ball joints that swivel and provide a small up/down tilt and limited ankle pivot. Like most rifles, you'd expect a hinawajū to be held with two hands... But this is Starscream we're talking about, where you're used to seeing null rays attached to his arms. And sure enough, there are 5mm ports on the sides of his biceps, allowing you to plug the hinawajū in. This frees up his hands for him to fan himself by popping the 5mm peg on the end into either of his fists. Or, for storage, you can plug it into his butt flap, which is where it goes in alt mode. There are definitely elements of Kingdom Airazor in the transformation here. Spread his wings, open his back to tuck the robot head in and bring the alt head out. Scrunch up the legs, use the extra shin joint to get the feet under him, and spin the feet 180 degrees so that the talons are facing forward. Where things get different is also where things start to go wrong. There's no torso shift to stretch him out and create a gap for the hands to tuck into. Instead, the entire pelvis simply hinges down. The arms do tuck into the sides pretty tightly, but the forearms and wrists bend to curl up behind and under his biceps. His thighs don't really tuck up and blend with the bird's body the way Airazor's do, either. The end result, let's face it, is not a very good bird. His robot torso makes for a fairly thick and blocky bird torso already, but having his pelvis and thighs below his torso completely throws off the silhouette. You can't help but think it would have worked better if they could have gotten more of his mass in line with his torso, then you see the massive gap between his elbow thrusters, tail, and pelvis. I'm not saying Airazor's transformation was perfect and not a bunch of obvious robot parts stuffed up into a bird-ish shape, but that shape is a lot better than this mess. Oh, and why a bird at all? Falconry, know in Japanese as takagari, was a sport enjoyed by the most elite in feudal Japanese society. Samurai during the Kamakura era established distinct schools. During the Edo period it was promoted as a military art that only samurai were allowed to engage in. Starscream makes for a crappy hawk, but his knees, mid-shin joints, and ankles do give him a little poseability. Also, his beak can open and there are a few joints in the bird's neck that allow it to look downward, but not really up, no rotation, and no side-to-side. The wings have two flapping hinges, and one swivel for fanning out the last section of his wings. Oh, and there's no partsforming necessary. You can simply spin the hinawajū 180 degrees in their arm ports, and that's where they go in alt mode. Likewise, if you already had the fan stored in his butt flap it stays there, becoming the hawk's tail. This one's tough, you guys. I do kinda like Starscream's robot mode, and I do kinda like the feudal Japanese theme. I liked Prime's alt mode for the sheer uniqueness of it. But Starscream's alt mode is straight trash. And once you remove the novelty, we're really talking about $68 for two mediocre-to-ok Deluxes, which is a good $12 more than two regular Deluxes even after the recent-economic-factors-induced 2026 price hikes on Transformers. And, you know, if you can afford it and you like these designs, then by all means go for it, but should you? Probably not. I mean, I'm always in it for Optimus, but realistically I'd have preferred they packaged him with Megatron, not Starscream, and then I would probably skip the second (still unreleased) set. But that's how they get you.

When Hasbro launched their Timelines series with a couple of Hearts of Steel designs it seemed to me like it'd be either be a one-off (we'd get the two 2-packs and that'd be all), or they'd keep going with more Hearts of Steel designs. So it was a bit of surprise when Hasbro confirmed that, yes, it would just be those four characters... but repeated over and over in different timelines. But here we are, starting over again in feudal Japan with Optimus Prime. If I'm being honest, the very first thing I noticed was that Prime seemed a bit on the smaller side. And sure enough, when I put him with the previous Timelines Optimus and Devastation Optimus he is, in fact, roughly a head shorter. Not just that, but there's a bit of that unpainted gray plastic. Yeah, there's some painted accents like the blue on his chest, the silver on his tummy, and the gold on his pelvis and shoulders, but on the whole it seems like he's got less than the Hearts of Steel toy. I hate to be one of those guys criticizing Hasbro's penny-pinching, but it is a bit frustrating to see a smaller toy with less paint that also costs $8 more than the two Hearts of Steel sets. You can't shake the feeling that you're paying more for less. Ok, but remove the comparison to other Deluxe-class Primes and lets just look at the toy on its own merits. What we've got here is a totally original design, unbeholden to any comic books or cartoons, just a simple idea: what if Optimus Prime, but in feudal Japan? So, that'd make Prime a Samurai, right? To that end, Prime's head is sculpted to look like he's wearing a kabuto, his shoulders are dominated by large osode, the backs of his hands have molded tekko, and his shins taper to give the illusion of knee and shin guards above sandaled feet. I personally think they could have gone a little harder on the samurai motif... his torso and shoulders are still fairly G1 and not particularly armored, and his pelvis flap doesn't really resemble the thigh guards a samurai would wear. I suppose the flip side of that, though, is that the colors, chest windows, and tummy grill make it very obvious who this robot is at a glance. Rather than a rifle, Prime comes with this naginata. I guess they could have given Prime a masakari, but it turns out the battle axes used by samurai and sōhei of the era were not particularly distinct. Prime's head swivels on a ball joint, with limited up/down/sideways tilt. His shoulders swivel and can move 90 degrees laterally; the osode are hinged and can move independently and get out of the way. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His elbows are ball joints, so they can swivel, but they can also bend inward. His waist swivels. His hips can go just under 90 degrees forwards and backward, and a little over 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little over 90 degrees. No up/down tilt on his feet, but his ankles pivot 90 degrees. To get the naginata into Prime's hands, you have to first pull the blade off, then slide the shaft up through the bottom of Prime's hands. There are three sections of the shaft that are a little wider, providing points of greater friction for Prime's hands to stop at. When Prime's not using his naginata, you can store it on his back by plugging a cutout on the blade onto one of the two odd-shaped tabs on his back. The instructions also make it clear that, if you prefer, you can plug the naginata onto either of the osode, but that's really more for alt mode. Speaking of alt modes, Prime's transformation is an interesting one. Begin by swiveling the waist 180 degrees. Fold out the gray tab in his right calf, bend his knees slightly, and fold back the backs of his thighs so that they tab into place on his calves. Bend his thighs forward without engaging his hips, and you'll pop little ox legs out of his thighs. Now use the hips to bring the thighs back down along with the ox legs, and fold his pelvis flap in against his crotch. Pivot his ankles in, and tab his legs and feet together. Untab the gray parts from the sides of his torso, bring his arms out, and then use the hinges on his back to swing the arms down and away from the torso. Open flaps on his chest and back, then rotate the robot head into the torso while bringing the ox head out. Swing the ox legs out from the sides of his torso, then close the flaps you used to swap the heads. Rotate his shoulders so that when you double-hinge the osode up on top of his shoulder that they'll tab into slots on the gray parts Fold out the flaps under the osode, use the ball joints to fold in his hands, then swivel the bicep so that the arms tab into the flaps you just folded out with the fists tucked toward the underside of the osode. Note that a lot of these tabs will leave parts at angles; that's actually what you want. Hinges on the gray parts will bring the arms together such that the osode will form the roof of a cart. Take that roof and bring it down over his legs. Tabs will go into his thighs, on his legs near the wheels, and his wrists will tab into his toes. It's kind of neat how Prime's torso turns into an ox, and his limbs turn into a cart, giving us a goshoguruma. Goshoguruma, literally "Imperial Palace carriage," were used exclusively by the nobility because 1.) Oxen have a slower but steadier gait than horses, which made for a smoother ride, and 2.) peasants weren't allowed to use wheeled vehicles during the Edo period. Goshoguruma are a very distinctly Japanese mode of transportation, then, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that they were NOT the majority of samurai, who would use either human-carried palanquins or horses to get around. In any case, we've seen Optimus Prime transform into a lot of different stuff over the years, including trains, pens, and the original PlayStation, but I find this one of the more interesting and inventive alt modes he's been given. Interesting and inventive... but doesn't do much. The wheels on the carriage roll, and that's about it. The ox has no articulation. You can store Prime's naginata on the roof of the carriage using the pegs I mentioned earlier on his osode. I'm honestly not sure what to make of this Prime. As I said, it's a bit frustrating that he's a little smaller with less paint than Hearts of Steel Optimus, and I was already coming into this disappointed that we seem destined to get the same four characters endlessly re-hashed when we all really wanted Hearts of Steel Shockwave... to say nothing of the fact that, even if they didn't continue Hearts of Steel, it might still be nice to get some other characters like Hot Rod, Grimlock, Soundwave, etc once in awhile. But I can't stay made at a Samurai Optimus that turns into an ox-drawn cart, including the ox. It's weird and it's fresh and I'm kind of here for that. But, he's part of a two-pack, so before you pull the trigger (or not) you might want to tune back in tomorrow to check out his rival.

Hound is back up at Target, @M'Kyuun https://www.target.com/p/-/A-94744441

Hmm... I kinda like young Trion with his fellow Primes, since in the "present" one's dead and most of the others went off to parts unknown, never to be seen again. But I'm sorely tempted to buy a second copy of the toy to stick that DNA kit on.

That's a good price for that G14 (especially because, at least with the previous generation, the GPU is so thermally throttled), but 16GB of RAM doesn't seem like enough for gaming anymore. Heck, a part of me wishes I'd have thought to upgrade the RAM in my desktop before the prices started skyrocketing. In any case, I went for the G14 with 32GB of RAM and the RTX 5070. That keeps performance similar with similar settings on both my laptop and my desktop (desktop has a 5080, but it has to drive a 32:9 Samsung G9 OLED with almost twice the pixels).